Monthly Archives: June 2012

just come back from a little excursion to ilkley and wandered into WHARFE VALLEY MUSIC shop on leeds road. they had a couple of mid-range mahalo uke’s for sale with deals on too (free gig bag etc) so worth a visit if you’re in the area and wanted to try out some ukuleles.

i got chatting to the lady who’s husband runs the shop and she said how their last 2 years have been the worst for their business. it made me think how easy it is to buy off the internet without a second thought to how it has massively affected little independent businesses such as this one. it would be such a shame to go past next time and see it had closed for good.

anyhow i personally walked away with a new clip on tuner and some guitar strings…i was seriously tempted by the tenor uke they had for sale!!! maybe next time!

so lets not see another empty shop on the high street…SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC SHOP!!

i think it’s really helpful (and also encouraging as we are now noticing a real improvement) to spend a bit of time on the arrangements each week. i want to keep it interesting though so i am having a think about what song we could tackle next!

in other news….some more music stands are on their way to the woolpack so we don’t have to balance music on our knees! i am also going to embrace the wonderful world of music notation as i appreciate that reading TAB is not for everyone. thank you for bearing with me on this one….i don’t think i can put it off any longer. be prepared for many schoolgirl errors!

so for those of you who missed last night, have been away for a few weeks or thinking about joining us for the first time….have a look at recap week – 25.06.12 to get the lowdown on the chords we have learned so far.

well we certainly were testing the capacity at the woolpack last night and it was so COOL to see so many people. thank you for coming! it was great to be able to welcome some new guys too and i hope that the recap session was useful (although i admit it was probably a little frantic)! an hour just flies by!

i think the songs are really starting to take shape and i would like to work on the ones we have started for another week to get the different parts consolidated as well as the chords.

Hello! here is one of the requests from the OUO that i had a listen to and really enjoyed (i have to say i preferred The Carpenters version!). It went down well this week and we played the tab part as an introduction and it worked well. the song was a great suggestion – it’s fun to sing and only has 2 chords so is relatively straight forward. D7 is a new chord but you will find the chord diagrams, tab and lyrics here! JAMBALAYA

so next week we won’t be learning any new songs but will consolidate the ones we have started already. it is really cool to see (and hear!) the improvements we are all making and the songs are really taking shape. it was great to hear you all having a go at the tab part too.

is may still be early days but i think we are going to be the best thing to come out of otley since that chippendale the furniture maker! see you next week!

well we had a select gathering on monday evening but we put the hour to good use and learnt a new song (JAMBALAYA!) and a new chord (D7!).

i am afraid to say i am without ukulele today so i couldn’t record any audio of how the song goes…i will hopefully do so before next monday!

but it is a pretty cool reason i am without uke….hester goodman of the ukulele orchestra of great britain borrowed it today as she locked hers in the town hall overnight and they needed one for rehearsal today! we went to the concert last night in leeds and it was AWESOME! we were on the fifth row so i could see everything that was going on. the sound they produced was really incredible – lots of interesting rhythmic and melodic parts happening as well as lovely vocal harmonies. i especially enjoyed their version of bang bang (nancy sinatra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Xl0Qry-hA&feature=related ) . so we met 5/8 of the band in the victoria after the concert and they were such lovely guys. i was talking about our very own otley ukulele orchestra with them and before i knew it (and after a couple of pints!) i had offered my ukulele up for them to use! all in all a pretty cool evening and now my ukulele has been played by the UOGB!!